A novel property of anti-Helmholz coils for in-coil syntheses of antihydrogen atoms: formation of a focused spin-polarized beam

Abstract

We demonstrate here that cold antihydrogen beams formed and extracted from a cusp magnet (anti-Helmholtz coils) are well focused and spin-polarized. A new discovery was the fact that the antihydrogen beam follows the well-known lens formula of optical lenses with its focal length properly scaled with the initial kinetic energy, the magnetic field strength and the magnetic moment. Furthermore, the simulation revealed that for a certain kinetic energy region of antihydrogen atoms, the optimum production position is upstream of the center of the cusp magnet, where a well-known nested potential configuration can be applied.

Keywords

• atomic and molecular beam sources and techniques
• beam optics
• exotic atoms and molecules